[registrars] Grave Robbing and SEDO Fencing

["John Berryhill" <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I see a lot of outrageous things in the course of a few days, so it is hard
to peg my moral outrage meter, but this one is a cut above....

Raven.com was originally registered through NSI in 1992 to:

     RAVEN Computer Systems
     PO Box 44309
     Minneapolis, MN 55344
     USA

     Administrative, Technical Contact:
     Teske, Don    dwt@xxxxxxxxx

As was noted on the web page for 15 years     

     (http://web.archive.org/web/20040602192346/www.raven.com/faq.html)

       Is the RAVEN domain for sale?

       No, this domain is not for sale.

According to the Social Security Death Index, the principal of the company,
Mr. Teske, died on October 3, 2005.  His widow continued to use her
raven.com email address.

In June 2007, an interesting change happened to the WHOIS at NSI:

    Administrative Contact
    Gostowski, Kushaiah		don_teske@xxxxxxxxx

Several days later, the domain was transferred to Directnic as:

       Registrant:
       Raven
       123 Main St
       Fresno, CA 94205
       US
       4152273833 
 
   Administrative Contact: 
     Gostowski, Kushaiah don_teske@xxxxxxxxx

And was offered for sale via Sedo after a quick change to:

          Registrant:
          Raven
          One Wilshire Blvd
          Los angeles, CA 90010
          US
           3109009783 
 
        Administrative Contact: 
        Colton, Mark ravenheadinc@xxxxxxxxx

The name sold at Sedo for $3,500 on July 3, 2007, was shipped out to
GoDaddy, and is now registered as:

      Registrant:

      Domains by Proxy, Inc.
      DomainsByProxy.com
      15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
      Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
      United States

      Administrative Contact:
      Private, Registration  RAVEN.COM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At the moment, it is up for auction at Ebay, Item 330151932746	

     This is the first time this domain is for sale since 
      registration in 1992

      raven.com

      You will never get a chance like this again.

My local pawn shop does more in the way of verifying the identity of sellers
than Sedo does.

Mrs. Teske, by the way, would like to have the domain name back.


John Berryhill, Ph.d., Esq.
4 West Front St. 
Media, PA  19063
(610) 565-5601
(267) 386-8115 fax